Many types of vehicles, such as fire apparatuses, cranes, telehandlers, and excavators, include a manipulator that can be actuated or otherwise arranged to extend outward from the base of the vehicle to accomplish various tasks. Such manipulators often carry a load at or near their distal end, such as construction equipment, building materials, or one or more operators or emergency personnel. The manipulator is supported by the base of the vehicle, forming a cantilevered loading arrangement. Accordingly, when the manipulator extends laterally or longitudinally outward from the vehicle, there is potential for the center of gravity of the vehicle to shift outside of where the wheels or other tractive elements contact the ground, causing the vehicle to become unstable. This limits the amount of weight that the manipulator can support and the distance that the manipulator can extend.
To increase the capacity of the manipulator to carry heavier loads out greater distances from the base of the vehicle, many vehicles include outriggers. Outriggers are supports that extend outward from the base of the vehicle and downward to engage the ground. Typically, the outriggers will lift the vehicle such that the outriggers support a large portion of the vehicle weight. Outriggers may include a first actuator that moves a foot laterally outward and a second actuator that moves a foot vertically downward. Other types of outriggers include a single actuator that moves the foot laterally outward and vertically downward simultaneously. Vehicles commonly will include four outriggers, two extending from each lateral side of the vehicle, such that the outriggers can lift the entire base of the vehicle off of the ground and level the vehicle.
To facilitate storage of the outriggers within the base of the vehicle when not in use, outriggers typically include relatively small feet. Due to the large weight that each foot supports when in use, the feet would exert extremely large pressures on the ground if the feet were to contact the ground directly. This would have the potential to damage the ground and cause the feet to sink into the ground, reducing the stability of the vehicle.
To counteract this, vehicles utilize ground pads, which are separate components from the outriggers. Prior to extending the feet of the outriggers downwards, the ground pads are placed beneath the feet such that the ground pads extend directly between the feet and the ground. The ground pads have a considerably larger surface area than the feet such that the ground pad spreads the weight of the vehicle out over a large area. This reduces the pressure imparted on the ground by the outriggers, reducing the potential for damaging the ground or for the outriggers to sink into the ground. Because the ground pads are separate from the outriggers, the ground pads can be stored in a separate location that accommodates their large size. Being separated from the outriggers also facilitates the ground pads being placed around obstacles, such as curbs, parked vehicles, rocks, or tree stumps.
However, the ground pads must be manually removed from their storage location and placed beneath the outriggers by an operator prior to using the manipulator of the vehicle. The ground pads can be bulky and heavy, and it can be difficult to accurately align the ground pad with the foot of the outrigger until the foot is extended. Accordingly, the process of setting up the ground pads can be quite time consuming. In emergency situations, such as when using a fire apparatus equipped with an aerial assembly to evacuate a burning building, reducing the setup time of a vehicle is important. Further, the challenges associated with traditional ground pad configurations may reduce the likelihood of operators actually deploying and/or using the ground pads themselves. Such lack of use may present a lack of actual compliance with regulations governing ground pad use in the field.